If you’ve been referred to the RRP Program and have questions, we have an FAQ here.

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Overview Community Referrals

What is the Restorative Response Program?

The Restorative Response Program (RRP) is a relationship-driven approach to harm stemming from crime or conflict. By centering the needs and impacts of those who have been harmed, we invite accountability for those responsible, fostering meaningful repair and healing to prevent future harms.

RRP is based on the principles of restorative justice and is an alternative process to criminal and civil court models. We work with both youth and adults. The majority of files referred to us are at a pre-charge level, meaning that if we accept a file, it is an alternative to charges being pursued. These referrals come from police or RCMP.  

We also accept community referrals from agencies such as schools, municipalities, and non-profit groups. These referrals involve situations where conflict or harm has occurred and everyone involved is searching for solutions that promote repair, learning, and understanding. Learn more about community referrals here.

The RRP program has been around since 1997 and our trained facilitators and volunteers have successfully worked on situations of harm ranging from shoplifting and acts of mischief to acts of violence, including intimate partner violence and sexual violence.

Restorative justice has roots in Indigenous justice/teachings, faith communities, the prison abolition movement, and alternative dispute resolution.

If you live on the North Shore, there's no cost to participating in the RRP program. 

How the program works

Once an incident is referred to us, we contact all parties affected by the incident and meet with them individually to find out what happened, who is taking responsibility for what, how people have been affected, and what might need to happen next.

We are also exploring whether restorative justice is a good fit to address the situation. These meetings are usually led by two co-facilitators who work on a file together. 

To decide whether we will accept a file,

we require those who caused harm to take responsibility for their actions and be willing to actively participate. It is imperative to the process that participation in restorative justice is voluntary on all accounts as well as confidential.

Based on these exploratory meetings,

we collaboratively create a restorative response that might be a face-to-face encounter (like a mediation, conference or circle) or explore how else the harm might be addressed in a meaningful way. When a face-to-face encounter is not appropriate or desired, we seek a conciliated response that attempts to meet the needs of all parties involved.

Restorative Justice is a creative, flexible process driven by those involved.

We believe conflict presents opportunities for learning, healing, and change and our role as facilitators is to guide the process rather than pre-determine outcomes. We build our work on the following questions: 

  • What happened and why? How do we address root causes of behaviour and conflict?
  • Who was impacted by what happened? What were those impacts?
  • What is needed to address what happened? How can those needs be met and who is responsible to meet them? 
  • What are meaningful ways to address and repair the harm?

You can learn more about the values that guide our work here.

Of the files we accept, 90% are resolved successfully and do not require any further police involvement.

In surveys of those who participated in the process: 

  • 100% agreed that the facilitators respected them throughout the process.
  • 95% agreed that the outcome of the process was fair to them.
  • 94% agreed they would use this process again.

Interview with Faith - A Past RRP Participant

Note that this video mentions of sexual assault. Please take care of yourselves as you are watching.

Testimonials

from participants

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